Post Christmas Catch Up

The festive season is nearly over and I had a blast. I didn't do any sewing but I did get some sewing and knitting gifts that I'll do another post on as soon as I've properly recovered from seeing in the new year!

Christmas day was pretty relaxed for us, we started at home just the three of us opening presents then we went onto Rikkis mums where we ate a banging roast [thanks Sue!] and played games until the wee hours! We stayed over and boxing day was much the same, more roast dinner and more games [If I'm completely honest I'm not a huge fan of roasts so if I don't see one for another month or so I'll be very happy]

Then we spent the 27th at home desperately trying to make our house look like a house again.

Then on the 28th me and Lil man went to my mums for a family day with my side of the family. Although it was a bit touch and go as the whether or not we'd be able to make it because of the SNOW! Yep I woke up in the morning to find snow on the ground and the local bus stuck outside our house. Luckily most of the roads were clear but we did have a couple of dicey moments trying to get off our estate!

We had a lovely time at my mums and came back to find Rikki taking the show off the wall and getting ready to put a new one in! [ Only our shower could break over Christmas! Luckily its fixed now thanks to Rikki and his Dad! Thank gad his Dad was able to come over and give him a hand because anytime me and Rikki do DIY together we risk getting divorced!!]

Which leaves me with the last few days of 2017! Where on earth did it go? Despite the current "world" situation I've actually had a great year. I've been given some fantastic opportunities by sewing brands and I got to take part in my first every sewing demonstration and I'm pleased to say I'll be doing a few more in 2018 as well!

Goals wise I feel like a did okay but here are my goals for 2018!

- Be more organised, recently I started a bullet journal and i feel like its helping me a lot and for xmas my big sister and her husband got me a proper gridded journal to use so I'm sure 2018 will be the year of an organised Frankie

- Knit a item of clothing, every year I try and knit a jumper or cardigan.

- Embrace my body, recently I had the harsh realisation that Ive been critical of my body since I was about 11. Which means I've clocked up 14 years of self shaming. This year however I've decided to fully embrace my shape, lumps and bumps. After all chances are this is as good as its ever going to get!!!

- Keep writing about sewing! It always surprises me how much I miss doing my blog when I'm busy! So the plan is to keep writing about sewing and whatever else pops into my head.

- Drink more water , this is pretty dull but I never seem to drink enough water. Hopefully 2018 will be the year I finally crack how to get the recommended amount of water into my system [PS when everyone else drinks a lot do they feel like they are peeing every 20mins?]

- Only make clothes I know I'll wear and love, My wardrobe is stuffed to the gills and I'm proud to say at least 80% is handmade. But that said I feel like I'm not getting as much use out of every piece like a could do!

And I think that's it?

I hope you all had a wonderful xmas and that Santa brought you everything you wanted!

And I wish you a very happy 2018!

I'll see you in new year for more sewing, knitting and creating!

And for my regular readers thank you for taking the time to read my blog , it means a lot!

Much Love

Frankie


xxx

Keep Smiling

Yesterday was a weird day.

I started off taking lil man to school and then I went into Hanley to finish off Christmas shopping. I had great success and managed to finish off all of Rikki's presents.

Then I popped home, had a quick dinner and got ready to go to my friends interment. 

Which was.... well not great. I couldn't find the plot so I ended up being a bit late but I was there for some of the really nice parts. I got to put something in with him, and have one last can of coke with him. That was a really nice touch he always drank coke so someone brought a crate of coke with them so we could all have one last drink together. 

Emotional but lovely. Then I popped to the local pub with everyone to share stories and catch up.

Then I drove home, had a quick tea and was off out again!!

This time I went out with some of the mums from school. Four of us went to the local church for a craft evening. We each paid £3 and I think there was about 7? crafts to do. We didn't get around to doing all of them but we did make.....

Hanging sheep. These were made with curtain rings and wool with lil felt faces!

A snow globe. Mine didn't turn out great as the deer is facing the side rather than front but I still think its pretty cute. I do have some worries about it leaking though!

Glow in the dark hanging decoration. This is just a little glass jar filled with glow in the dark hammer beads. Then we put hooks in the top and put some stickers on. 

Snowman Clothes peg, the lady said these were for on the side of plant pots! Its a white dolly peg with a bead and felt hat, a ribbon scarf and the end of a cocktail stick nose. The nose isn't my work though my friend Sarah coloured it in for me whilst I ate my mince pie!

Pine cone Christmas tree. A pine cone spray painted green and then we stuck on some coloured pompoms and glittered it up.

This was by far my favourite make of the evening! These scrabble tiles [from ebay] are stuck onto a strip of card using double sided tape. then we put some metal hooks in and looped through some ribbon. 

I did my name and lil mans but sadly didn't have time to do Rikki's. Which makes me think I may have to invest in some scrabble tiles of my own so I can make more. 

After the crafts we popped to out local pub and met up with some of the other mums for a night of chatting and drinking! I had a really fun night but boy am I tired today! I stayed out past 12! I have no idea how I used to stay up until 3 in the morning! 

All in all it was a pretty mixed day, on the one hand I had a great time with the mums from school but on the one hand I had to say goodbye to a good friend and that was really hard. 

You see Plumby was a rare example of a genuinely wonderful human being. He was kind and selfless. He was funny, he always had time for people and he was caring towards those people he loved. I don't think in the 20ish years I knew him I ever heard him say a bad word against anyone. 

And most importantly he always had a HUGE smile on his face. 

I'm going to miss him a lot.

Much Love

Frankie 

x

  

The Stocking My Grandma Made Me.

I hope your all in the festive spirit? I most certainly am. The tree is up, a good portion of the presents are wrapped and surprisingly I'm feeling pretty good about Christmas this year. Normally I get super stressed with trying to make Christmas "perfect" but this year I;m making the conscious decision to roll with it. What happens happens, because its going to happen anyway. 

In fact I've already pretty much accepted that both of the boys will be ill the week before Christmas. Mainly because it happens EVERY BLOODY YEAR! Yep you can guarantee on the 20th of December, one or both of my boys will be in bed poorly. That said I do hope they don't throw up, I can cope with colds but I am a MESS when it comes to puke.

Anyway that's enough of the gross talk! 

Today I'm showing you something that I didn't make.

My Grandma made me this stocking when I was little. In fact she made one for me my sister and my brother. Each one is different and each one was firmly ours! In fact I found it really bizarre when during our first Christmas Rikki told me he didn't have a Christmas stocking! I mean WHAAAAA? You don't have your own stocking?

I sort of believed that everyone was born, got given/brought a Christmas stocking and then they used it forever? But apparently not! 

Which I sort of get now that me Rikki and Lil man have matching stockings that I made. I like that we all have the same style and that hopefully we will get to use them forever! 

But that doesn't mean that this stocking gets tossed aside. Nope instead it hangs in the hallway and I fill it with sweets and then when people come over they can have a sweet out of the stocking. Nephews and Nieces seem to find this particularity cool. When Rikkis brothers son came over last year he basically cleared me out of candy canes! 

This fabric at the top is one of my favourite parts and I put some scraps of it into our Christmas quilt.

Its fully lined which is good because it means it can be washed if need be and the whole thing won't fall apart. And I really like the contrast fabric on the toe and the heel. 

Its all hung up now I just need to get some sweets to fill it with. 

In other news! 

- Our spare room is full of presents! So whilst I have 7 things made and really to photograph I actually have no where to take pictures. I'm tempted to try taking some in the garden but I;m worried someone will see me and think I'm nuts! 

- Dawsons creek is on all 4! Every single episode. So that pretty much sums up how I've been spending my time. I'm nearly onto season two and I'm not sure I can cope with the sheer levels of teenage angst! Also DAWSON ARE YOU BLIND? OR JUST A BIT DIM? 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

    

Mini Fabric Haul

I have a real struggle with the whole post Christmas post new year thing, Its not that I feel sad I just have no motivation. I kind of juts want to sit in my jammies and binge watch tv series whilst eating chocolates [FYI I've just finished lost and now feel like there's a hole in my soul that no T.V series will ever fill]  

To be honest I've just been letting it run it course, yes I have no motivation to do actual things but I've read two new books that Rikki brought me and I finally bit the bullet and tried crochet again! [But more on that another day] 

Anyway I decided that my fabrics just weren't inspiring me so I went fabric shopping! Now FYI I'm calling this a mini one because I spent less than £50 and it didn't take me all day! I was given money by my mum to go fabric shopping which will be a bigger haul! But this one was to perk me up and give me something to sew up whilst I wait out the last of winter! 

I should probably say this haul comes courtesy or Rikkis Grandad Ron and our friend Steve! 

Anyway I went to abakhans on Friday after dropping lil man off at school, which meant I was completely alone! I took a list and was very vigilant with how much everything was going to cost me! Especially seen as I wouldn't have my mum to pick up any short fall and I only have my Christmas cash on me! Needless to say the staff as always were very helpful! [I feel like I'm rambling.... I'm terrible at writing posts where I've actually spent money after two years of being on a VERY tight budget!] So onto the fabrics!

2.5m of red stretch velvet - £8.40

I'm going to use this to make another GBSB wrap dress because how lush wold a velvet one be? Incidentally lil man helped me pull this out of the dryer after prewashing and I struggled to get it off him, he was all wrapped up in a swath of warm fuzzyness! ADORABLE! but seriously kid get your dirty mitts off my fabric!!! 

Feather/Leaves Poly knit - £4.03 

this was from one of the bins, I'm thinking of using this for some colour blocked raglans! [I have a pattern which is very similar to the Linden sweater but that I was given for free and came from prima magazine! I think its designed for a thinner knit but I think if I cut a size bigger I'll be fine!] 

Red Stripe - 2.5m £3 something per metre

I had this off the roll and now I have no idea if its a polycotton or a cotton. But I did spend ages debeating between the black and the red, The red won because I'm trying to inject some more colour into my wardrobe this year! I'm going to use this the make a [hopefully] wearable toile of a vintage pattern. From what I can remember the bodice has some interesting darts which is why I chose a stripe? That or I'll look like a cheaper version of bananas in pyjamas!

Tie Dye print - some sort of poly thing - £7.33? 

This also came from bin and is destined to be a simple sew wrap dress. I thought it was worth making another because I've had so much wear from the first [as yet unblogged I'll get on that soon!] and its just so versatile! 

Poly Knit Stripe - £7.19 

From one of the cages and destined to be a Coco dress and by destined I mean I cut one out when I go home and I'm wearing it now.......... [Its awesome!]

Tape measure cotton - 2m - £5.94 p metre [I think I got it cheaper because it was on sale!]

I've been eyeing up this print for ever! I mean I love sewing and its got tape measures on it! Could it be more perfect?  Naturally I'm going to make a Lilou dress [Yes I know you think I'm boring but I have a lilou obsession and I am not ashamed!!!!]

Jewel print - poly peachskin?- 3m - £0.75p per metre! [yes your reading that right!!!]

Okay so I'm torn between whether this is the most fabulous fabric I've ever seen or really tacky! but I can't argue with 75p a metre so it came home with me! I think its going to be a long summer dress maybe? If it doesn't look ridiculous!

And thats it!

Wish me happy sewing and lots of motivation!

Frankie 

Rodney the Reindeer

So its been like a week since my last post, what can I say Christmas guys, Christmas. I literally haven't stopped. But I think we are finally ready and hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly again, at least until actual Christmas hits!

Anyway I actually made this about a week into December and its been sat under my tree ever since. And since then its just been waiting for me to write the post!

Okay so the pattern was free with Love sewing Magazine and much to my disgust it wasn't actually physically included, the instructions were but they actual pattern pieces had to be downloaded and printed off.

I dont want to sound like a drama queen but this really cheesed me off! I mean I get it. save the trees and stuff but when I'm buying a sewing magazine for near on 6 quid I don't expect to have to print off the pattern myself.  

Anyway our printer is broken so I waited patiently until we were driving past currys and "oh why don't we have a look?" and "oh that's a good deal on a printer"..................... Just to clarify we did not buy a new printer so I could print of a sewing pattern [or at least that's what I told Rikki when this was sat on the paper tray less than three minutes after he'd set it up.]

So yeah I printed it off and taped it together [yet another pet peev] and then I cut it out.

The fabrics is a mixed bag, the white and red snowflake print is from the craft cotton company, the bells are vintage from my grandmas stash and the tartan is a scrap from this skirt. The bell on the nose wasn't part of the pattern but I added it because the nose was kind of a funky shape and it kind of looked like a horse. In fact the whole pattern wasn't quite as cute as I expected, the nose is pretty long and the legs felt super clunky. But I'm pretty sure its just me and my sucky toy making skills rather than the actual pattern.

I'm also still not sure why he has a neckerchief? I mean its cute but hes not a cowboy?

The antlers however are awesome, I love them so much and they luckily do make this look like a reindeer! 

Anyway as much as its not as cute as the one in the magazine I do still love it!!!  

In other news , all of the Christmas wrapping is done [and I got a Chinese for my trouble] and now we are just gearing up for our influx of Christmas visitors.

Lil man has finished school and had an awesome last two weeks with his nativity and school trips and none uniforms days! And I've been trying to teach him what a lie in is.................. So far he doesn't quite get it.................

The house is Christmased to max which is nice although its not leaving me a lot of time for sewing and other things!

I've also made two pretty awesome clothing items but lo and behold our spare room as chocker with presents so I can't take pictures yet! [here's a giggle for you, we are using Rikkis present sorting system this year which he proudly showed me last week whilst telling em how brilliant it is compared to my old system..... the difference........ he put our presents on a different side of the room!..... I mean seriously he just switched which sides the presents were on...............] 

Anyway much love! 

And if I don't get chance to say it closer to the time I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that Santa leaved you lots of lovely sewing goodies in your stocking!!!!

Frankie xxxx

Hobbycraft wooden advent calendar Review.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Haha no it isn't its still November! Although if you make your own Christmas presents chances are you've been playing Elf for about the past 6 months.

Anyway I LOVE advent calender's! But not just the regular chocolate ones! I like the EXCITING ones! And last year we treated Lil Man to a lego advent calendar because that is basically the most exciting calendar you can buy! FYI don't buy it its absolute rubbish. Seriously it was the most disappointing thing I have ever seen. It was basically pointless.

 So this year I decided to be prepared and buy a solid advent calendar that we could use every year [Actually I wasn't being prepared the original plan was to put the contents of the lego advent calendar into a solid advent calendar with some sweets and stuff........then we realised that opening doors to that would be soul destroying] 

So instead I think we are going to go hunting for some stuff to put in it! which may or may not include lego!

anyway so this is how it turned up from hobbycraft. brown MDF. If you have a rustic Christmas you would probably leave it like this?

So I painted the white parts first, I used two coats of emulsion and two coats of white acrylic paint. I had some serious trouble trying to get even coverage on this thing. 

Next I painted the insides of the doors green which two coats of acrylic. I was going to paint the insides of all the compartments but its just so fiddly I gave it. we're going to use it for 25 days a year I can live without perfectly finished insides.

Next I painted the red parts with red gloss, this part probably took the longest because oh look super fiddly again! I think I did two coats of this and it does give a nice shine!

I free handed all the numbers on the doors using sharpie and scattered them about at random. Or at least I hope they are random.

Okay so the nitty gritty! Its a pretty good kit. Its very fiddly so i wish there was a way to take the doors off or to build it form flat pack or something. 

I like the simple house design it really does leave the door open for lots of imaginative decorating opportunity! like gingerbread house, sparkles, Santa! I kept ours with our red and white colour scheme though as we like to have a very tradition Christmas! 

In fact I think it would be super cute to just give these to your kids to decorate and then they have their own personal one!

Things I'd do differently:

If it was less fiddly id have loved to decorate the inside of each compartment with pretty paper or scrap paper so when the door opens its all beautiful and bright.

I'd have sprayed the whole thing white to begin with [or if hobbbycraft could just made a white version that would be awesome!] about half was through painting I had an "it would have been so much easier to spray paint this" moment. and then maybe I could have finished the insides of those pesky compartments!

I'm still debating a bit of glitter but part of me thinks we have a lot of glitter on our mantle piece at Christmas anyway and I don't want it to be too much.

I am going to add something to the bottom red square wheres there no door though, I'm just not sure what yet, I think I'll raid the Christmas box when we decorate and see if anything jumps out at me! 

So yeah I'm pleased I just wish the whole process had been less painful!!!

Frankie

x

Hobbycraft Haul

You may have noticed that I dont actually do many Haul posts and well that's because I don't really buy much stuff throughout the year. Instead I tend to rely on kind family and friends who are getting rid of fabric #GIVEMEYOURCURTAINS!

And birthday and Christmas money and vouchers! Luckily for me I got two hobbycraft vouchers for my birthday and I finally found time to email Hobbycraft and get them combined [fun fact, you can only use one gift card at a time on the Hobbycraft website however if you message them on Facebook they will combine them and send you a new gift card with the full amount] and spend them!

So without further ado here's what I got!

So I got three balls of wool on the three for two offer that they were running and they were £1 each but because of the offer I only paid £2. These are destined to be baby booties and hats.

I picked up a pack of hobbycraft pins for £1 and a magnetic pincushion for £5. this pincushion is a game changer I literally just throw pins at it and I love how neat and tidy it looks!

My first ever set of Washi tapes! These ones are Christmas themed and came as a three pack for £1. 

Some red paint, this was meant to be for my wooden advent calendar, but I ended up using gloss because it covered better. £1

paint brushes, because you can never have enough paint brushes!  £2

I got a pack of assorted sewing machine needles because I always stock up at Hobbycraft, they were £2.50 and I picked up a magnetic seam guide in an effort to make my seams neater. This wasn't the one pictured on the website which miffed me off a bit but I mentioned it to Hobbycraft and they said hemline have changed the design and they have updated the website and for any inconvenience they are sending me a gift card. But anyway the seam guide was £2.50 and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I love the accuracy it gives me particularly with going around corners. 

A set of measuring spoons, £1. These seamed like an absolute steal! one side is spoons and one sides is cups. They sit inside each other and have a little magnet so they stay together in the drawer.

And this was my big spend, this cost £12 and is a wooden advent calendar. I've been wanting a wooden calendar for a while now and I think this one is going to look super cute sat on our fireplace! Ive already started painting and my only quibble is that it takes loads of layers of paint to get a decent finish and that its super fiddly to do. I think I might have liked it better if It had already been sprayed white so you had a plain base to start with!

and it might have saved me some curse words! FYI if you do buy one of these use acrylic paint! it gives the best finish!

And that's it! 

Hopefully I get some Christmas spends so I can go fabric shopping and do a fabric shopping haul!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Lakeside Grainline Pyjamas, Christmas Style!

When I first started blogging I had to make a tough decision. As a person who hates having their picture taken would I put pictures of me up on my blog? Would I crop off my head? Would I just display them on a mannequin?

In the end I decided to photograph the things I make on me, mainly because I find it very frustrating when people post pictures of their makes on mannequins because everything looks good on a mannequin! [Major kudos to Jo at three stories high who posted pictures in a bra she made for the same reasons!]

So I took the plunge and took pictures of myself in my latest make a very short pair of Lakeside Pyjamas by Grainline Studios! [definitely worn nude pants and a strapless bra for these as well as tights because I'm not that brave!]

Right so details, the top is a loose fitting tank with a split back and bust darts and the shorts are elasticated at the waist and have sort of a 70's running short vibe!

I made a size 12, although I measured as a size 8. Yes I went up two sizes, after reading some blogs by people who had already made them I discovered that the shorts run a lil small, and as I have a lil bit of "ahem" junk in my trunk, I thought it was best to size up , and then I figured as I was making a toile maybe I should size up twice just to be safe.

And I'm really glad I did, the fit on top is good its loose enough to be comfy without the straps falling down and exposing bosom [anyone else have that? wake up in the morning to find both boobs have escaped you pj top? just me? okay then.......] 

And I'm really glad I sized up on the shorts, They are fairly loose on the waist and I took the elastic in by about 2 and a half inches but I'm really happy with them. I think the size 8 and 10 would have been a bit too snug and the last thing I want to be dealing with at 3am is a wedgie.

The pattern is deigned for light woven's, like lawn style cottons. But I used this Christmas fabric by the craft cotton company and it worked nicely. Although I didn't have enough of one fabric to make the full set so the top has a reindeer front and a snow flake back and the shorts have red reindeer print with a white reindeer waistband!

I don't mind the mismatched effect as its a toile but I do have some really lovely gingham cotton lawn to make my next set in! [courtesy of my friend who sent me both this pattern and the fabric as an early wedding present!]  

I actually put off making this pattern because it requires 7 YARDS! of bias binding. And I hate bias binding! But surprisingly I found this quite therapeutic and the instructions are really clear so that made it easier.

On some of the pictures below you can see how the bias binding hides all of the raw edges and gives a really pro finish. Although I got a bit confused when it came to binding the edge of the shorts but I think I know what I need to do next time for a really great finish.

This is the back split which might be my favourite part! It gives a really comfortable fit which I love and its nice to have a lil bit of sexy in the back especially seen as the rest is so loose. 

I also wondered if you could hack the pattern so the wrap over back was at the front and then you might have yourself a nice lil top for breast feeding.

Im starting to dream of a pair of these and a light silky material now! Very 1950s hollywood!

I had a hard time posing for these, hence all the props! oooh harry potter! perfect bedtime reading!

Here's the bias binding straps, the pattern give you a measurement to ct but I think its worth trying them before you stitch them into your top. These were the right length for me but if you bust is slightly bigger you might find the armholes tight.

The instructions are really clear on all points so its definitely worth following them! I love how the binding finishes this! Even if you do need 7 yards of the stuff! It is worth making your own though because pre made bias binding can be quite stiff and you don't want to be uncomfortable at bedtime!

I read on a few blogs that people plan on making these shorts in a knit with minimal stretch for running. I won't be doing that...... I only run on three occasions

1- for fabric

2- for wine

3- away from zombies

Here's the elastic waist, I'm tempted to make a drawstring one on my next pair but then Id have to tie them and stuff and deal with the inevitable my draw strings come undo shorts drop to the floor and expose my bum and foof dilemma! So I might just stick to elastic!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

P.s Definitely not saving these for Christmas!!!